Scott here's some facts to consider to really put this project into perspective:

Last week, Ron Gonzales commemorated the construction of the 6,000th housing unit during the past 5 year period and pledged to build an additional 6,000 housing units during the next five years. The Hitachi Project will squeeze over 3,400 units or the equivalent of 57% of the total units Gonzales pledged for entire City of San Jose in an area (i.e. a little over 100 acres) that is approximately .001% of the entire area of the City of San Jose which is 175 square miles.

According to the traffic manuals reference by the City's traffic engineers, each of the Single Family housing units will generate approximately 9.8 daily vehicle trips in the area. That is the equivalent of placing over 33,000 additional cars and trucks on the streets surrounding the area. In addtion to this traffic, the project would also add more vehicle trips (cars and big rig traffic) generated by the construction of an additional 460,000 square feet of commercial retail space. For reference 43,560 sq. ft. is the equivalent of an acre and 50,000 sq. ft. is the typical equivalent space of a newer Safeway/Albertsons Super Grocery Store or a "Big-box" so this would be like constructing about 9 new grocery /big boxes stores on this site.

The large shopping center at the Southeast corner of Cottle and Santa Teresa Boulevard could not support the retail tenants it had. Only recently was it remodeled when non-retail use were allowed to go in. Is there really enough demand in the area to support the equivalent space of 9 new grocery/big box stores--especially with Oakridge and Eastridge being remodeled and the City Council changing the zoning on the Old GE site on Capitol Expressway to allow commercial?

Is there enough water to supply this project? Does Oak Grove have the capacity? What will this do to our rates? Will we need to build additional facilities? Who will pay for them?

Is there enough sewer and storm drainage capacity in the area? We are facing inreased rates already. Will we need to build additional facilities? Who will pay for them?

Is there enough capacity in the school districts serving the area to handle the additional students that 3,400 units will bring?

What will this development do to the Fire and Police response times in the area? Will new fire and police stations need to be built? Who will pay for the construction of these stations? Who will pay the salaries of the added patrol officers and firefighters needed for this development?

How will this project impact the Santa Teresa Branch Library which is only now being upgraded to meet the existing needs of our community? We were facing limited hours because of budget cuts just a few weeks ago. What will this project bring?

How will this project impact our local parks and park facilities? We were considering closing bathrooms, not doing maintenance, and limiting public use because of budget cuts a few weeks ago. Soccer & Play fields are in short supply. What will this project bring?

This project is being presented as a way to keep Hitachi in San Jose. Given our everchanging global economy and offshoring of even hi-tech jobs, there is no legal mechanism that can guarantee with absolute certainty that Hitachi will keep its jobs in San Jose.